Mysterious Lights Detected on Mars

A spacecraft which is orbiting Mars has detected mysterious lights which are embedded deep in the Martian Atmosphere. The NASA spacecraft Maven observed these lights which could be seen till Christmas last year.

The spacecraft also discovered a dense dust cloud which did not match the early predictions made by scientists. The results were presented to the public at the 46th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Texas.

The Maven mission has a goal of solving the mystery of how Mars lost most of its water and atmosphere. Scientists are trying to determine that how much water is lost into the crust and how much water has been lost into space. They are also trying to figure out that how much CO2 is lost in space and in the crust.

The Bright glowing lights which were spotted by Maven in December are ultraviolet auroral lights and were discovered in the northern hemisphere of Mars.

On Earth, auroras are known as northern or southern lights and the reason for their existence are energetic particles which cascade into the atmosphere and that coaxes the gas to glow.

The Martian lights were originally discovered by the Mars Express spacecraft, scientists were amazed to find out that the lights were embedded deep into the atmosphere. Earth has a magnetic field but Mars had lost its magnetic field billions of years ago, scientists think that the particles which stream in directly from the sun strikes and penetrates deep into the atmosphere.